As many of you know, long time San Bernardino Councilman Chas Kelley was forced to drop out of the mayoral campaign and resigned his office after it came out that he had been paying his wife thousands of dollars and using campaign funds for personal expenses. Though I do not recall seeing any itemization of where these funds went, numerous articles in the press have reported the figure approached $75,000. He is slated to be sentenced to 90 days in jail (to be served on weekends).

The latest update from the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters shows Judi Penman now trailing Abigail Medina in her bid to be re-elected to the San Bernardino Unified School District, Board of Trustees. She trails Medina by a scant 37 votes!

The numbers reported by the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters paint a pretty bleak picture for the Penman clan. San Bernardino City Attorney Jim Penman is on the verge of being recalled. In the first report of absentees, he was down significantly and the first update of the night showed little change.

Penman

By William Cutting Wednesday, October 16, 2013 – 08:30 p.m.

Election cycle after election cycle, San Bernardino City Attorney James F. Penman continues to pile up electoral victories. It has been quite an impressive run for the cantankerous old man known to get a little red in the cheeks on occasion.

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Let me tell you a story about a guy who would be right at home here in the Inland Empire — I mean…this guy puts San Bernardino Mayor Pat Morris and his Measure Z sales tax fleecing of taxpayers to shame.

The train wreck that is ObamaCare is still hurtling down the tracks. It used to be “out of sight, out of mind” but now its approach is growing closer. We still can’t see it…but we are starting to hear the rumble echoing through the canyons in the distance.

As a parent, I know how difficult it can be to think of an original idea for a kid’s birthday party. The other day I read an interesting article about a company that puts together exotic pet viewings/showings for parties featuring many fascinating creatures. The company is called “SoCal Jungle” and they are in the business of reptile parties — and the article specifically discussed a birthday party in Rancho Cucamonga.

Someone forwarded a bunch of emails from a person by the name of Keith McCarter to me. In the first one, he announced he is running for State Assembly and asked for our vote in June 2014. He also ran for mayor of Fontana a little while back.

You all are undoubtedly familiar with the Harris Poll/Harris Interactive polling company. They have been around for over 50 years I believe and conduct numerous well known polls. From presidential elections and other assorted public policy issues to the weekly college football poll every fall, they do it all.

I stumbled upon this story over at MousePrint.org and thought our readers over here at Inland Politics might have an interest in it.

According to this blog posting, District Attorney offices across the nation are allowing debt collectors to use District Attorney stationary to go after bad check writers. Presumably, the DA’s office receives a cut of some kind, be it a slice of the collected funds or perhaps a licensing fee to use the stationary.

When you have grown up and spent your entire life in the Inland Empire you sometimes forget how big it is. It doesn’t help that we lack our own media market and we constantly live in the shadow of moronic Los Angeles newscasters. Every now and then I come across a story and figure it is happening in some place hundreds and thousands of miles away.

The City of San Bernardino, fairly and unfairly, is the subject of much comparison when it comes to analyzing how other cities do things in the region. Much maligned with the recent bankruptcy issues and plagued by rampant crime, poverty and a deteriorated economy, it is the easy punchline.

Kelley

SAN BERNARDINO – Fifth Ward Councilman Chas Kelley blasted Public Works Director Nadeem Majaj at the City Council meeting Monday night for what Kelley described as the smearing of a prominent asphalt contractor’s reputation.

Joanne Genis stands in the shadow of one of the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project’s high-voltage line towers near the front yard of her home in Chino Hills on Tuesday. The City Council has made available an additional $100,000 for work by their legal council to continue the battle against Southern California Edison’s project. (Thomas R. Cordova Staff Photographer)

VICTORVILLE • A judge has agreed to pause Victorville’s lawsuit against the federal government, waiting to see if the city first succeeds in overturning the termination of its EB-5 visa investor program through an administrative appeals process.

“I have great respect for each of you individually, but collectively I’m worried that you’re going to fail – fail the country,” former Bill Clinton chief of staff Erskine Bowles said last week to the 12-member joint congressional supercommittee tasked with cutting the federal deficit by some $1.2 trillion over 10 years.

Sharon Bialek goes public with claims of sexual harassment by Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain — the first of his accusers to do so. (Richard Drew, Associated Press / November 7, 2011)

In an escalation that sent Herman Cain’s presidential campaign into dangerous new territory, a woman offered a graphic public account of being groped by the Republican candidate 14 years ago during the same period in which three other women have anonymously claimed he harassed them.

Huff and Dutton

By Neil Nisperos Staff Writer Created: 11/04/2011 10:13:19 PM PDT

From boondoggle to significant?

The man who many believe will be the next Republican leader in the state Senate has a completely different viewpoint on the state’s proposed high-speed rail plan than the current holder of that position.

Aaron Sandusky, from Rancho Cucamonga, stands at the Bud Bar of G3 Holistic Inc. in Upland Friday November 4, 2011. Sandusky had all 3 of his medical marijuana despenceries (Moreno Valley and Colton), along with a warehouse in Ontario, raided and shutdown by federal and local officials. (Will Lester/Staff Photographer)

Bill Postmus and Jim Erwin

Search warrants released Friday provide more details of former San Bernardino County assessor and Supervisor Bill Postmus’ struggles with hiding his homosexuality and drug addiction as he was under scrutiny by authorities who suspected him of abusing his public office.

SAN BERNARDINO – Eleven search warrants served over a two-year period in a sweeping corruption probe tied to a legal settlement between the county and a Rancho Cucamonga developer were ordered released Friday by a Superior Court judge.

Gomez

November 04, 2011 4:53 PM KAREN JONAS Staff Writer

SAN BERNARDINO • Nearly two years after Barstow Mayor Joe Gomez was charged with touching a woman inappropriately, his defense attorney said the incident was consensual at a hearing Friday morning in San Bernardino.

The state’s ethics watchdog panel is considering what its chairwoman calls “a complete overhaul” of regulations on gifts to public officials, and some of the proposals drew objections Friday from open-government advocates.

Spencer

Embattled San Bernardino International Airport developer Scot Spencer has racked up roughly $545,876 in delinquent property taxes since 2005, of which $31,618 has been seized by the county tax collector.

In a rare move, federal prosecutors have agreed to return materials to a Rancho Cucamonga developer that were seized in September as part of an investigation into alleged corruption surrounding the $102 million lawsuit settlement between Colonies Partners LP and San Bernardino County.

The U.S. Attorney’s office will return materials seized in mid-September from Rancho Cucamonga developer Jeff Burum during an FBI search at his home and business, according to an order approved by a federal judge Monday.

The ambitious plan to connect Anaheim and San Francisco with high-speed trains has encountered plenty of obstacles, including intensifying resistance from wealthy and poor communities lying in the track’s path.

But the bullet train’s biggest threat could be its ballooning price tag, which this week doubled to an estimated $98 billion.

Jim Penman (Kurt Miller/the press-enterprise)

BY BRIAN ROKOS STAFF WRITER brokos@pe.com

Published: 28 October 2011 04:02 PM

San Bernardino Public Works Director Nadeem Majaj said he’s afraid City Attorney Jim Penman will send armed investigators after him because Penman threatened to raid Majaj’s home and car after Majaj refused to turn over a police report.

Riverside County Supervisor Marion Ashley

FROM STAFF REPORTS

Published: 30 October 2011 08:05 PM

The California Supreme Court felt otherwise, but part of the unsuccessful court challenge to the Citizens Redistricting Commission’s state Senate plan centered on complaints about what the maps do in San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

ADELANTO • The City Council has hired a team of lawyers in an attempt to recoup $48 million in bond losses its public utilities authority suffered after the bond insurer’s rating plummeted a few years ago.

For California’s high-speed rail project, it’s been an inauspicious autumn.

Disparaged for its lack of public outreach, the California High-Speed Rail Authority hired a new deputy director for communications and public policy, Lance Simmens, who introduced himself to Kings County residents – and YouTube viewers everywhere – by falling asleep at a public meeting.

Gov. Jerry Brown announces his public employee pension reform In October. His proposed overhaul of public pensions is a major step toward political reality. (Max Whittaker, Getty Images / October 30, 2011)

By George Skelton Capitol Journal October 31, 2011, 2:42 a.m.

From Sacramento– Gov. Jerry Brown would be the first to admit that rolling out a 12-point pension reform plan is the easy part.

Let’s stipulate that public employee pension costs are not the fundamental cause of California’s financial problems. We can even accept the argument from the union-backed Californians for Retirement Security that “the average public pension in California is $26,000-a-year,” that “three-quarters of CalPERS retirees collect $36,000 or less” and that “public pensions equal just 3% percent of California’s budget.”

During Herman Cain’s tenure as the head of the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s, at least two female employees complained to colleagues and senior association officials about inappropriate behavior by Cain, ultimately leaving their jobs at the trade group, multiple sources confirm to POLITICO.

Freshly unveiled maps proposing new political lines for California would splinter some key Inland cities between districts, prompting local leaders to question whether the lines would strain longstanding community ties or dilute their representation in Washington.

Councilman Tobin Brinker, who is up for re-election in the 3rd Ward in November, said Friday he plans to run for mayor in 2013. “I don’t think there’s any such thing as starting too early,” Brinker said.

Vehicles proceed through a repaired Highway 330 on Friday. Heavy rains washed away sections of the we ve had people working 24 highway in December 2010 prompting a closure of Highway 330 from Highland to Running Springs. (Al Cuizon/Staff Photographer)

By Jesse B. Gill Staff Writer Posted: 06/17/2011 06:19:47 PM PDT

Drivers in the San Bernardino Mountains now have a key route back after Caltrans reopened Highway 330 on Friday.

COLTON – The school board solidified its earlier elimination of crossing guards, Future Farmers and other popular programs Thursday night as it passed a bare-bones budget for the 2011-12 school year and detailed steep cuts for the following year.

The Los Angeles City Council this week opposed state legislation that calls for establishing an Inland Empire-based authority to take control of LA/Ontario International Airport from the city of Los Angeles.

SAN BERNARDINO • Citing concerns over “extremely troubling” cuts to public safety, 1st District Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt said he plans to vote against the proposed San Bernardino County budget when it goes up for approval June 28.

Gov. Jerry Brown “may not have anticipated just how much more polarized the state Capitol had become since he left,” says Dan Schnur of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC. (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times / June 16, 2011)

NEWS ANALYSIS

Governor’s action sends the issue back to a Legislature he’s been unable to unify. By Michael J. Mishak and Anthony York, Los Angeles Times June 18, 2011

Reporting from Sacramento — Gov. Jerry Brown was elected on a pledge to break legislative gridlock by changing Capitol culture, and he showered state lawmakers with attention as he tried to forge a bipartisan compromise to fix the state’s chronic financial mess.

Capitol Alert The latest on California politics and government June 17, 2011

Hours after Gov. Jerry Brown roiled majority Democrats with his budget veto, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg made public his plans to halt consideration of the governor’s appointees “for an indefinite period of time.”

A new Field Poll finds three of four Californians surveyed have a negative image of Arnold Schwarzenegger, shown discussing the state budget in 2009. (Rich Pedroncelli, Associated Press / June 2, 2009)

In an effort to resolve a dispute that has left 300 nonteaching jobs vacant for months, the San Bernardino City Unified School District Personnel Commission has hired a man as a temporary “professional expert” whom the district has twice rejected as a permanent employee.

With 90 percent of lawmakers holding at least a bachelor’s degree, California has the most highly educated Legislature in the country, according to a study being published today by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

After months of meetings and public input, the California Citizens Redistricting Commission on Friday released a first draft of what California’s new Assembly, Senate and Congressional districts could look like.

Rep. Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino, says Democratic Party officials have asked him to consider running for a proposed new congressional seat that would represent Ontario, Chino, Montclair, Pomona and Rancho Cucamonga.

SAN BERNARDINO – Attorneys for four men charged with bribery and other crimes in connection with the county’s $102 million legal settlement with Colonies Partners LP received transcripts Friday of grand jury proceedings that resulted in a 29-count criminal indictment last month.

San Bernardino County’s proposed budget calls for significant cuts to the district attorney and probation department and would reduce the hours of county employees if they refuse decreased health and retirement benefits.

Democrats stand to gain in Congress and state Legislature under panel’s redrawn districts. By Evan Halper and Richard Simon, Los Angeles Times June 11, 2011

Reporting from Sacramento and Washington — California’s new voting districts could put Democrats within reach of as many as five more seats in Congress and enough in the state Legislature for the two-thirds majority needed to raise taxes, according to Democratic and Republican analysts.

The timing of theCalifornia Public Employees Retirement System’s email deletion policy is raising concerns because CalPERS has been under investigation by state and federal authorities. Above, the CalPERS board. (Robert Durell, For The Times / June 11, 2011)

By Marc Lifsher, Los Angeles Times June 11, 2011

Reporting from Sacramento— The California Public Employees’ Retirement System has begun automatically deleting any emails older than 60 days, raising concerns among watchdog groups that the giant pension fund could be destroying evidence of misdeeds.